


Rewind

by flibbertygigget



Series: The Other 51 [1]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: F/M, Suicide, Time Travel, super powers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-02
Updated: 2016-03-02
Packaged: 2018-05-24 06:18:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6144284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flibbertygigget/pseuds/flibbertygigget
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When you were five years old, you were given a pebble that allows you to go back 24 hours and fix your mistakes.</p><p>Some people waste their second chance when they are only children. Some die without ever using it, regretting some occasion long past fixing. But some use their rewind to rewrite history.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rewind

When you were five years old, the oldest woman in your birthplace gave you a pebble. It is always small, unassuming, but it holds great power, for if you throw this pebble over your right shoulder and say “rewind,” you can relive the previous 24 hours and fix your mistakes.

Some people waste their second chance when they are only children. Some die without ever using it, regretting some occasion long past fixing. But some use their rewind to rewrite history.

_ George Washington _

Valley Forge had been too hard for George Washington’s men to bear. He watched as they filed away with the dawning of Christmas Day, never, he knew, to return. The British had broken them. Washington had no army, and without an army there was no war. It was only a matter of time before he was hunted down by the British and hung for high treason.

Washington considered the pebble in his palm. He had on many occasions been tempted to use it to stop a massacre or change the outcome of a battle, but he was glad that he had saved it for now. There was no other time when a rewind had been so desperately needed.

Washington threw the pebble over his right shoulder and stood. The officers suddenly around him were startled, used to his despair. There was no hint of despair in his stance now, only cold determination.

“We row across the Delaware tonight,” Washington said, his tone making it clear that there would be no argument. “We can get the Hessians at Trenton. It won’t win the war, but it will renew our men’s spirits- and their enlistments.”

George Washington never told anyone that he had used the pebble to win the war. It wouldn’t be seen as honorable, and if there was anything he cared about, it was honor.

_ Angelica Schulyer _

Angelica Schulyer didn’t want to use the pebble. She didn’t want to give the new light in her eyes to her sister; she didn’t want to lose Hamilton to someone who would satisfy him more. She was selfish, she knew. In the end, it was the disappointment in her sister’s eyes that carried her through with it to the end.

She threw the pebble over her shoulder and found herself, once again, at the Winter’s Ball. Hamilton was right there, handsome and brilliant and- Angelica took his wrist and began to pull him away from their corner.

“Where are you taking me?”

“I’m about to change your life.”

Hamilton possessed no fortune nor any title beyond his military one. Hamilton only wanted her because she could offer him money and position and power. Hamilton would be happier with Eliza, who was good and kind and everything a woman was supposed to be. 

Eliza gave her a searching look as she presented her gift. Angelica quickly raised whatever mask she could. She couldn’t let her sister know how much she regretted that rewind.

_ John Laurens _

John Laurens was ill, not only in body but in spirit as well. That morning, while he was lying uselessly on his sickbed, his men had been slaughtered by some of the few remaining redcoats. Laurens’ pebble was pressed in his hand. He wasn’t going to hesitate.

He should have been among those killed that morning. No, more than that, he should have been at the head of his men, the first to be martyred for the cause of liberty. There was so little time left to die honorably on the battlefield rather than at the hands of the demons that whispered poisonous threats into his mind. Laurens threw the pebble easily, confident in his decision.

He stood, wavering slightly, but it was still easy to get out to his horse. He was ready to ride into glorious battle. He was ready to die.

_ James Madison _

It would be so easy to do. All he had to do was drop a few hints, push Jefferson and Hamilton into a meeting, and arrange an agreement that would be favorable to both the North and the South, both Federalist and Democratic-Republican. Madison knew that he stood on the precipice of changing history, of enabling the Union to stand on a solid foundation both financially and governmentally. All he had to do was choose to rewind.

In the end, it was almost pathetic the ease with which he obtained his objective. Jefferson could be manipulated almost without thought, and Hamilton was desperate enough to not be too suspicious when things were suddenly falling into place. As Madison sat at Jefferson’s table, ready to bring to fruition the compromise he had created, he smiled.

No one needed to know that it had taken his pebble to bring about the salvation of America.

_ Alexander Hamilton _

Alexander Hamilton’s mother had always warned him not to use his pebble thoughtlessly. It was only because she refused to give it back to him until he was ten that it survived his childhood at all.

As an adult, there were many things that Hamilton wished that he could rewind and erase. Had he realized what he was getting into, he would have made it so that he never opened the door to Maria Reynolds or published his pamphlet on Adams. Hell, if he had known where it would get him, he would have gone back and erased the very instance that he met Aaron Burr.

There was plenty that Hamilton wished he could change, but he always realized his mistakes too late. That was why, in the end, he died without ever using his pebble, full of regret.

_ Aaron Burr _

It was not in Aaron Burr’s nature to regret his actions, but he regretted them now. Oh, God, did he regret shooting Hamilton, not even bothering to look at where the man was aiming.

Burr considered the pebble in his palm. The temptation to use it had never been so strong. He could save Hamilton. He could save Hamilton, and Burr shuddered at the thought. There was so much that could go wrong in trying to change the past, in attempting to convince Hamilton to leave his challenge unanswered and to go back to his wife and family. If he took it back, threw away his shot as Hamilton had done, there was so much that could make him regret his decision.

But nothing could make him hate himself more than not using his pebble to erase that one moment of lapsed judgement.

In the end, the history books show that Alexander Hamilton, former Secretary of the Treasury, killed Vice President Aaron Burr in a duel at Weehawken, New Jersey, in the second round of bullets.


End file.
